Comments on: New Nikon EDG Fieldscopes with DSLR compatibility

By: Matthew

Matthew — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 04:55:21 +0000

Looks like a Canon L-Series lens…

Do they have these in AF versions?

By: Anon

Anon — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:10:20 +0000

Good for very candid portraiture though….

By: Mikko

Mikko — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:38:43 +0000

Ok, I didn’t realize the prices are that high and corresponding focal lenght is as long as 2000mm. Anyway it is lot of money to me …

By: den

den — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:54:03 +0000

have you checked other prices? you will see products within that range are all around 3000€. up to my knowledge there is no lens capable of delivering around 2000mm for nikon mount (if used with a dx camera, or araound 1500 for use on FX)

By: Neil

Neil — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:03:49 +0000

Depends on the camera. A D200 and higher can.

By: Mikko

Mikko — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 08:56:24 +0000

“Nikon is pleased to announce its new flagship range of cutting-edge premium, yet affordable, new EDG fieldscopes that offer first-class performance out in the field.”

3299$ yet affordable?

By: lblaod

lblaod — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 05:08:51 +0000

cool

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:08:10 +0000

I have a pair of nikon binoculars that I use for sporting events and I have to admit, they are very crisp, but that being said I don’t think that my eyes have the same resolving power of my D300. I will probably stick with my 70-200 unless these fieldscopes are less than $500.

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:01:18 +0000

B+H has preliminary pricing up on these, and it’s very high ($2700 – $3200). The only consolation is that all Nikon sport optics (binoculars and spotting scopes) have ridiculous list prices and sell for maybe half of their list price. B+H may have posted list prices, rather than what they’ll sell for when they become available (although they’re accepting orders at those prices). If the prices are real, Nikon has priced the new ED-G scopes above every other scope on the market except Leica (they’re above Zeiss).

By: MB

MB — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:48:46 +0000

Yes it is the ring, and it is red too, it seams to me that the red ring is symbolizing readiness of the lens to produce great images, or more likely it just resembles the red stripe on Nikon DSLR cameras.

By: Ernst

Ernst — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:43:43 +0000

Nikon offers an F-mount adapter for their current fieldscopes as well.

Notwithstanding the tiny apertures (think f/11 – f/13), the digiscoping results I’ve seen simply aren’t very sharp. These really aren’t good alternatives to telephoto lenses.

That said, somebody on one of the birding forums rigged up a system using a Nikon DSLR and a physically larger astronomical telescope that retailed for only a little more than the Nikon fieldscopes (about $2K, I think) with *spectacular* results. The pictures looked as good as those taken with a 600mm f/4 (though I think the effective focal length was more like twice that). The only downside was that tiny aperture.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:22:02 +0000

Whats with the red ring? It reminds me of Canon’s L series lenses as that red ring seems to symbolize…

By: [NR] admin

[NR] admin — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:20:34 +0000

I took the press release from Nikon UK:
http://www.europe-nikon.com/press_room/news.html?locale=en_GB&bandwidth=broad&id=2044&type_index=2

By: [NR] admin

[NR] admin — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:18:38 +0000

$372 @ Amazon, not cheap!

By: DNHJR

DNHJR — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:31:53 +0000

No VR?

By: Crabby

Crabby — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:03:48 +0000

Two comments:

1. I once owned the last mirror lens Nikon made, a 500mm model. It, unlike earlier Nikkor mirror lenses, had a red line in the same place as do these scopes. This marking could just be cosmetic or have some meaning in Nikon-speak.

2. I saw a couple of sample photos made with an SLR or DSLR through an earlier Nikon fieldscope. By the usual standards, I was not impressed. Has anyone seen a photo using the new ones?

By: Justin C

Justin C — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:28:39 +0000

Just found this on Nikon’s site. I don’t know if it will work on the new Fieldscopes, but it answers a lot of questions as to how this will work.
http://www.nikon.com/products/sportoptics/lineup/dsystem/fsa-l1/index.htm

By: Justin C

Justin C — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:25:58 +0000

So then the F-Stop is going to be a very high number? I wonder if the camera will be able to meter?

By: Jeroenw

Jeroenw — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:11:39 +0000

I wonder what the pricetag will be on these. Nikon fieldscopes do not come cheap

By: Wim

Wim — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:30:37 +0000

It seems that somebody at Nikon replaced the original text (as quoted above) by a much shorter one that does not mention the D-SLR compatibility any more.